Raise a glass to National Beer Day: tips on the perfect pint
I didn't write a Valentine's Day column, I also didn't do one for Mother's Day, and I won't be doing one for Father's Day, either. Who am I to tell you how to enjoy your time with your most beloved – and who am I to tell you what they ought to be drinking, seeing as these days that's invariably informed by gendered marketing and targeted campaigns?
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I am, however, writing a column for National Beer Day on 15 June (the same as Father's Day – yawn). Why am I doing this? Well, today is the night before, AKA New Beers' Eve, and isn't a pun as glorious as that worth celebrating?
If you're taking the time to observe the occasion, it's worth enjoying your beer properly, so the ideal is to enjoy a pint in a pub, where the nectar is poured fresh, the lines are clean, the glassware is bespoke (ideally), and the server doesn't care whether you live or die (unideally). But if you'd rather pay £3 instead of the new national average of £5 for a single beer, you're probably better off staying home, so I asked some industry folk, each of them no stranger to replicating the best drinking experiences in a domestic setting, how to achieve the perfect serve without leaving the house.
For Matthew Curtis, drinks writer and founder of drinks magazine Pellicle, it all starts with the cleanliness of the glass, which is, naturally, a little more tricky to achieve at home than at a bar, where specialist kit is involved. 'Clean it thoroughly with hot, soapy water and using a dedicated brush. If you use a dishwasher, you're going to get oil and residue on the glass, which will cause nucleation of bubbles on the insides and your beer won't keep a head. Also, before use, always rinse the glass with cold water to make sure there's no dirt on it.'
Elizabeth Townsend, meanwhile, may own Kerroo Brewing Co, but at home she uses an Edel stemmed glass to get the most from her beer: 'It keeps your drink nice and cold, because you're not holding on to it like a pint glass, plus the rim allows more aromas to get to your nose.'
Karen Edith Millar, who runs All Good Beer's bottle shop in east London, has another, more unexpected, tip: 'You can make any rubbish lager from the back of the fridge instantly drinkable by chucking a dash of Campari into it, because the bitterness of the Campari takes away that sweet flavour you can get in more cheaply made beers. If you're a fan of a west coast IPA's hoppy bitterness, for instance, it will really scratch that itch.'
That said, if you're anything like me and a beer has a maximum life expectancy of about two hours once it gets through your front door, there may not be any rubbish lagers in your fridge to begin with, so this week's pick features a selection of brilliant beers that require no additions.
Kirin Ichiban Premium Beer First Press £3.80 (500ml) Starry Mart, 5%. A delicate malt beer from Japan. I'd really recommend their Black Raw, too.
Vault City Raspberry Sour £3.50 (440ml) Vault City, 5%. A fruity and tart sour beer from Edinburgh.
The Kernel Imperial Brown Stout, London 1856 £5.60 (330ml) The Kernel, 9.6%. Deep coffee notes, and a stout that isn't Guinness!
Erdinger Alkoholfrei £1.75 (500ml) Sainsbury's, 0.5%. A tasty, malty wheat beer for the tee(ish)-totallers.
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